Which Medium of Music Do You Prefer?

[Nyarlathotep]

I hope you invest thousands upon thousands of dollars into your project, only to sell 50 copies, and have all those copies pirated without your consent.

Actually, I have prolly invested 1000s of dollars into my FX setup and such. If I could've "pirated" them, would I? Prolly.

Funny thing is anything I record I put out there for free. Always. Simply because I HAVE a day job, and have no aspirations of becoming a "rock star". This is prolly a topic for another thread, but it pisses me off that it's apparently super easy to become a rock star these days. Im not pissed because other people have more talent than me, or better "networking" skills, but because theres too many being signed (IMHO) and it waters down (IMHO) the industry as a whole.

Not everyone should make money playing that guitar on the MTV

Besides, IMHO the industry has been lagging behind since cassette recorders became monetarily accessible to the people. Tape swaping -> CDs recorded to tapes and swapped -> mp3 file sharing, is the progression I see. Piracy isn't a new thang, its just that now that its not just tapes traveling around citys but mp3s traveling the world, that now the industry complains.

 

[Balog]

It's ok to steal if you really want it. It's not like they even get that much money from it anyway. And besides, most of it sucks. And really, stealing their music actually helps them. Once you steal the first sample, you'll go out and buy the rest, not steal the rest as you might expect. And it's been going on for a long time so that makes it ok.

Again, pathetic rationalizations fueled by "I want it but stealing is easier." Disgusting.


That being said, the industry really does need to move to a different distribution model. Piracy may be morally wrong, but from a pragmatic standpoint it's not preventable. Much like retail stores need to adjust for shoplifting.

 

[daystcity]

Just because it fits you to not make any money off of CD sales, why should you deprive others who's music is their 'day job'? Oh, and the industry is broken so I should make it more broken because it's easy to do so. You can 'pirate' FX, it's called stealing, get on it then buddy! It's the way of the future! Just because it's easy to break the law doesn't mean it's ok. If I stole my computer I would have a lot of spare cash available too! I hope you realize that your rationalizations don't make any sense. In fact, I don't even care that you pirate, but trying to justify it like that is way too stupid for me not to comment.

 

[Rudreax]

I get the feeling that we are slowing getting to the point where sharing music will become so easy musicians will have to make all of their revenue from concerts.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

You can 'pirate' FX, it's called stealing, get on it then buddy! It's the way of the future!

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of cloning FX more than stealing them. I'd still be theoretically taking away from the profits of the person that made the original. But, I don't really have any great soldering skills, and the GT-10B is way to complex to clone, so I haven't. That and since most of my FX are custom, like the Attack Goat or Supercollider, schematics are not as easy to come by like mp3s.

Just sayin'

 

[Thunderscreech]

I get the feeling that we are slowing getting to the point where sharing music will become so easy musicians will have to make all of their revenue from concerts.

You mean....they didn't before???

 

[Simo98]

I get the feeling that we are slowing getting to the point where sharing music will become so easy musicians will have to make all of their revenue from concerts.

that and radio/movie soundtrack/advertising royalties.

that is untill they have to stop making movies because everyone pirates them

 

[hbarcat]

Just out of curiosity, could someone explain to me how vinyl could be superior to other forms of listening to music (if it is)?

It's all about the personal preference of the listener.

Analog formats such as vinyl, tape, FM radio and others suffer from certain categories of distortion that can both be measured and heard. These distortions can be ignored or not depending on the taste and preference of the listener.

But most distortions from digital formats are in a different category and they are perceived by the listener very differently. Consider that signal to noise ratio (SNR) is usually much better for common digital formats than for analog. But analog noise is usually pretty easy for listeners to completely ignore - even at high levels. Most types of distortions that are common to digital formats are relatively obnoxious and are difficult to ignore.

Aliasing is a distortion that isn't easy to measure in a quantifiable way because the amount of it depends greatly on the quality of the digital filters, the design of the related circuits and even on the content of the audio. The point is: You don't know what the aliasing spec is for the music CD you happen to be listening to but you can hear that the cymbals sound "whooshy" and unnatural. Vinyl or tape often reproduce high frequency content like cymbals or flutes better than CD's and a lot better than MP3's.

Quantization error is another type of digital distortion that analog doesn't have and it's also particularly obnoxious sounding when it's noticeable at all.

Fortunately, digital distortions can be reduced to undetectable levels given a high bit depth and high sample rate (higher than CD's and MP3's) and played on equipment with well designed circuits of good quality. Unfortunately, those higher quality formats are rare and a great deal of music just isn't available in high quality digital. You're stuck with CD format with its obvious digital distortions or vinyl with its obvious analog distortions.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_system_measurements

 

[electracoyote]

While I think vinyl is sonically superior, CDs are just far too convenient not to be the go-to medium, IMO.

+1

I grew up in the Age of Vinyl, which means I have duplicated many albums on vinyl, 8-track, cassette, and now CD. One of the lost perks of the 33 1/3 vinyl long player was the artwork and liner notes. They used to define the album almost as much as the music itself. Gatefolds were creatively and often beautifully done to the point that they were often displayed like posters or paintings. The liner notes could actually be read without using a magnifying glass, and were most informative and interesting. It gave you an appreciation for the artist and their image that is unfortunately largely lost on today's artists.